Box Score

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT got a game-high 21 points from senior Chris Flores and fellow senior PJ Miller added a career-best 17 points for the Highlanders, who clinched the regular season championship of the Great West Conference with a come-from-behind 69-58 win over visiting Houston Baptist Saturday afternoon in in the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.
 
Played in front of a capacity crowd in the Fleisher Center, Saturday's Senior Day win for the Highlanders, who trailed 26-9 with 7:20 left in the first half, lifted their Great West Conference record to 6-1 with one game remaining, locking up the regular season crown.
 
Overall, the Highlanders upped their record to 16-11,  a new high for men's basketball in the Division I era, which began in 2006-07 (the previous high was 15 wins, done in both 2010-11 and 2011-12).
 
On top of that, the victory over Houston Baptist extended NJIT's winning streak to a season-best five consecutive games and also raised the Highlanders' record to 10-3 since January 5.
 
Houston Baptist (12-15 overall; 3-4 Great West) came in even hotter than NJIT, having won eight games in a row, including dealing the Highlanders their only conference loss in Houston last month. Saturday's win over HBU marked the third time this season that NJIT has lost the first leg of a home-and-home series and then won the second leg.
 
Flores and Miller, both playing their final career home games, were the only double-figure scorers for NJIT. In addition to his game scoring honors, Flores also shared the NJIT rebounding lead, with six, and the game steals lead, with three.

Senior Ryan Woods, who did not play for the last 14:28 after injuring his shoulder diving on the floor in pursuit of a loose ball, also grabbed six rebounds, as did NJIT's top freshman, Ky Howard, who helped pick up the slack for Woods' absence in the second half.

Flores and Miller led the game with three steals, as did Highlander sophomore Odera Nweke, who hails from Richmond, Texas, near Houston.

The top scorer for HBU was freshman guard Rob Lewis, who came off the bench for 16 points, while senior Anthony Hill chipped in 13 points for the Huskies.
 
Game rebounding honors went to Houston Baptist's standout senior post player Art Bernardi, who finished with 11 boards, leading the visitors to a 44-37 advantage in that department. Bernardi, HBU's leading scorer coming in (14.7 ppg) was limited to eight points (3-for-11 shooting), breaking a personal string of 11 consecutive double-figure scoring game.
 
The game certainly didn't begin the way anyone associated with the Highlanders had hoped. After a missed shot on its first possession and a turnover on the second, NJIT fell behind on a jump shot by Bernardi in the opening minute.
 
Woods answered with a 3-pointer, his 82nd of the season, on the other end, giving the Highlanders what would be their only first-half lead, 3-2. But HBU ran off 10 straight points in 5:14 for a 12-3 lead. Nweke hit a pair of free throws to break a nearly six-minute drought for the Highlanders. But the Huskies went right back at it minutes later, running off eight unanswered points and eventually taking the biggest lead of the day for either team, 26-9, on a Lewis layup with 7:20 left.
 
Remarkably, NJIT held Houston Baptist scoreless the rest of the way to the break, enabling the Highlanders to score the last 17 points of the half, capped by a Miller jumper with four seconds remaining that produced a 26-26 halftime score.
 
HBU's Lewis was the top scorer at the break, with nine points, while Flores and Miller each had six to lead NJIT, which shot just 7-for-29 (24.1 percent) from the field, but offset that with 10-for-11 shooting at the foul line.   
 
With Flores, who struggled shooting in the first half, heating up to score 15 of his game-high point total in the second half, and Miller adding 11 second-half points, the Highlanders won by outscoring the Huskies 43-32 over the last 20 minutes.
 
Still, securing the win wasn't easy for NJIT, despite shooting 48 percent from the field in the second half, while committing just three turnovers and forcing 11 HBU miscues on eight Highlander steals.
 
In fact, Houston Baptist scored the first four points of the final period, getting a 3-pointer from Hill on the first possession and then the first of two free throws by Caleb Crayton on the next possession.
 
Flores followed with back-to-back baskets, producing the first of six second-half ties—the latest of which came at 42-42 with 10:27 left when NJIT's Nigel Sydnor made the second of two free throws.
 
That made free throw by Sydnor sparked a 7-0 run that put NJIT in the lead to stay, with four of the points in the spurt coming from Flores.
 
The NJIT lead toggled between six and four points from the 9:11 mark until the 6:20 mark, before a Hill 3-pointer from the left corner trimmed the NJIT advantage to 52-49 with 4:42 remaining.
 
The Highlanders, who made 19 of their first 21 free throws in the game, responded to the Hill three with four straight made foul shots—two by Nweke and two by Flores—with the Flores shots making it 56-49 with 3:41 left on the clock. NJIT led by at least six points the rest of the way.
 
“This was a great day for us,” said NJIT coach Jim Engles after clinching the GWC title. “We've been pushing and pushing and we've had some good luck and some bad luck. But we kept playing and put ourselves in position to have this game (a potential title clincher).
 
“The way we came out so poorly in the beginning and then the way we finished is a testament to these guys' character. We started to really defend late in the first half and then carried it over into the second half.”
 
NJIT will wrap up it most successful regular season in over a decade with a game at Texas-Pan American next Saturday with a 7 pm (CST) start.

The last time NJIT won as many as 16 games and finished first in its conference for a regular season was in 2002-03 when the Highlanders, then playing in Division II, finished 18-11 overall and were first in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.
 
The Highlanders recognized their four seniors in pre-game ceremonies recognizing Flores, Miller, Woods, and Sean McCarthy.